Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

First Edition: February 21, 2020

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.

Kaiser Health News:
Stalked By The Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You
Do I know I’m at risk for developing dementia? You bet. My father died of Alzheimer’s disease at age 72; my sister was felled by frontotemporal dementia at 58. And that’s not all: Two maternal uncles had Alzheimer’s, and my maternal grandfather may have had vascular dementia. (In his generation, it was called senility.) So what happens when I misplace a pair of eyeglasses or can’t remember the name of a movie I saw a week ago? “Now comes my turn with dementia,” I think. Then I talk myself down from that emotional cliff. (Graham, 2/21)

Kaiser Health News:
Trump’s Medicaid Chief Labels Medicaid ‘Mediocre.’ Is It?
The Trump administration’s top Medicaid official has been increasingly critical of the entitlement program she has overseen for three years. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has warned that the federal government and states need to better control spending and improve care to the 70 million people on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the low-income population. (Galewitz, 2/21)

Kaiser Health News:
It’s Not Just Hospitals That Sue Patients Who Can’t Pay
Nashville General Hospital is a safety-net facility funded by the Tennessee capital city. For a patient without insurance, this is supposed to be the best place to go in a city with many hospitals. But for the uninsured, it may have been the worst choice in 2019. Its emergency room was taking more patients to court for unpaid medical bills than any other hospital or practice in town. A WPLN investigation found the physician-staffing firm that runs the ER sued 700 patients in Davidson County during 2019. (Farmer, 2/21)

Kaiser Health News:
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Labor Pains Of ‘Medicare For All’
Labor unions are divided over whether to endorse a Democratic candidate for president in 2020 — and, if so, whom to choose. Some unions are firmly behind the “Medicare for All” plans being pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But the influential Culinary Workers Union in Nevada declined to endorse any candidate, with members worried about what might replace the generous benefits they won by bargaining away wage increases. (2/20)

Kaiser Health News:
Listen: Missouri Efforts Show How Hard It Is To Treat Pain Without Opioids
KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber speaks with KBIA’s Sebastián Martínez Valdivia about the challenges Missouri faces in trying to treat chronic pain without opioids. Weber had reported that only about 500 of Missouri’s roughly 330,000 adult Medicaid beneficiaries used a new, alternative pain management plan to stem opioid overprescribing in the program’s first nine months. Meanwhile, 109,610 Missouri Medicaid patients received opioid prescriptions last year. (2/20)

The New York Times:
As China Fights The Coronavirus, Some Say It Has Gone Too Far
China’s business leaders know better than to argue with Beijing. Leave the politics to the Communist Party, they long ago concluded, and the government will let them make money in peace. A vicious viral outbreak has upended that formula. China’s typically supercharged economy has ground to a near standstill as the authorities battle a coronavirus that has killed more than 2,000 people and sickened tens of thousands more. Hundreds of millions of people now live essentially in isolation, as roadblocks seal off entire towns and the local authorities stop companies from reopening. (Bradsher, 2/20)

Stat:
Confusion Over Coronavirus Case Count In China Muddies Picture Of Spread
Infectious diseases experts are losing confidence in the accuracy of China’s count of cases of the novel coronavirus, pointing toward health officials’ shifting definition of cases over time. Confusion over how China is counting cases of infections is making it harder to know how coronavirus is spreading, even as China is officially reporting that the numbers of new cases reported in recent days have fallen sharply. Many suspect the decline may be attributed in part to shifting case definitions. Earlier this month, China broadened the criteria for newly diagnosed cases in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, then reversed itself. (Branswell, 2/20)

The Washington Post:
Confusion Mounts Over China’s Counting Methods As Coronavirus Numbers Swing Wildly
Authorities in Hubei province reported good news Thursday: There were only 349 new coronavirus cases the previous day, the lowest tally in weeks. The bad — and puzzling — news? Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, reported 615 new cases all by itself. As Chinese leaders and state media strike a coordinated note this week about the government’s ability to contain the outbreak, inconsistencies and sudden changes in official data are leaving experts — and journalists — struggling to plot meaningful trends, or even place any confidence in the figures coming from government. (Shih and Berger, 2/20)

The New York Times:
Why The Coronavirus Seems To Hit Men Harder Than Women
The coronavirus that originated in China has spread fear and anxiety around the world. But while the novel virus has largely spared one vulnerable group — children — it appears to pose a particular threat to middle-aged and older adults, particularly men. This week, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published the largest analysis of coronavirus cases to date. Although men and women have been infected in roughly equal numbers, researchers found, the death rate among men was 2.8 percent, compared with 1.7 percent among women. (Rabin, 2/20)

The New York Times:
What A Party In Japan May Tell Us About The Coronavirus’s Spread
Rain was falling on the night of Jan. 18, so the windows of the Tokyo party boat were shut. Inside were about 90 guests of a local taxi association who were celebrating the new year as the vessel floated down the Sumida River. Also on board, unbeknown to them, was a coronavirus capable of spreading ferociously. It did just that. A driver in his 70s soon fell ill with fever; he later tested positive. The same day as his diagnosis, his mother-in-law died; she also was infected. Officials then discovered that 10 others from the boat were, too, including an employee who had served passengers from Wuhan, China. Still more who did not attend the party caught the virus after coming into contact with those who did. (Wee and Inoue, 2/20)

The New York Times:
To Prevent Next Coronavirus, Stop The Wildlife Trade, Conservationists Say
The coronavirus spreading from China has sickened at least 73,000 people and killed at least 2,000, setting in motion a global health emergency. But humans aren’t the only species infected. Coronaviruses attack a variety of birds and mammals. The new virus seems to have leapt from wildlife to humans in a seafood and meat market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were slaughtered and sold as food. (Nuwer, 2/19)

Reuters:
Virus Shows Plight Of China's Overstretched Doctors
The coronavirus epidemic has shined a spotlight on another simmering crisis in China's healthcare system: a critical shortage of doctors. Rising demand for health care has far outpaced the increase in the supply of doctors. Between 2005 and 2018, the number of fully licensed doctors nearly doubled, but the number of hospital admissions nearly quadrupled, according to Chinese government data. The result is a vicious cycle, doctors and industry consultants say. (Harney, 2/21)

The Associated Press:
Stress, Rumors, Even Violence: Virus Fear Goes Viral
You might have heard that the fear of a new virus from China is spreading faster than the actual virus. From earnest officials trying to calm a building panic. From your spouse. From the know-it-all who rattles off the many much more likely ways you’re going to die: smoking, car accidents, the flu. None of it seems to matter. (Klug, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
China's Count Of New Virus Cases Drops, Deaths Exceed 2,200
China reported another fall in new virus cases Friday as health officials expressed continued optimism over containment of the outbreak that has caused more than 2,200 deaths but has grown elsewhere. Containment of the illness has been a struggle far from the epicenter in central China. South Korea's capital banned street rallies and the government sent help to a city where cases have surged. Hong Kong reported a new infection in a police officer. (Moritsugu, 2/20)

The Washington Post:
China Prison Outbreak Raises Alarm; South Korea Feared As New Hot Spot
A handful of prisons reported nearly 500 new cases, a significant portion of the more than 1,100 new cases reported in mainland China on Friday — and a marked increase after several days of declines. Tests at a prison in eastern Shandong province showed 207 out of 2,077 inmates and staff were infected, and the provincial justice department’s Communist Party secretary was dismissed as a result, the province announced. Another jail in Zhejiang province found 34 cases. Hubei province, at the center of the outbreak, said Friday it found 220 new cases inside penitentiaries. (Shih, Denyer and Armus, 2/21)

Reuters:
Coronavirus Widens Hong Kong Anger At Government, China
Pro-democracy protesters have all but vanished from the streets of Hong Kong over the past month as residents avoid the new coronavirus, but the outbreak has broadened discontent with the city's leadership and China's influence on the financial hub. Some business leaders and pro-Beijing politicians have joined pro-democracy and union figures in attacking Carrie Lam's administration for what they see as an uncoordinated response to the virus and its refusal to seal the border with mainland China, which might have prevented infections. (Wu, 2/20)

Stat:
Wuhan Quarantine Bought The World Time To Prepare For Covid-19
When the Chinese government blocked most travel into and out of the city at the center of the Covid-19 outbreak in late January, many public health experts took to social media and op-ed pages to decry the measure as not only draconian and a violation of individual rights but also as ineffective: This largest quarantine in history — the city, Wuhan, has a population of 11 million, and the lockdown has been expanded — would have little effect on the course of the epidemic, they argued. As the U.S. and other countries imposed travel restrictions, even the World Health Organization questioned whether they were a good idea. But early evidence is causing some disease fighters to reconsider. (Begley, 2/21)

The Washington Post:
Diamond Princess: State Department Flew Coronavirus-Infected Americans To The US Against CDC Advice
In the wee hours of a rainy Monday, more than a dozen buses sat on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Inside, 328 weary Americans wearing surgical masks and gloves waited anxiously to fly home after weeks in quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess, the luxury liner where the novel coronavirus had ­exploded into a shipwide epidemic. But as the buses idled, U.S. officials wrestled with troubling news. New test results showed that 14 passengers were infected with the virus. The U.S. State Department had promised that no one with the infection would be allowed to board the planes. A decision had to be made. Let them all fly? Or leave them behind in Japanese hospitals? (Sun, Bernstein, Mahtani and Achenbach, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
16 Cruise Ship Evacuees Being Moved To US Hospitals
Eleven Americans who were brought to the U.S. from a quarantined cruise ship have been moved to hospitals, because delayed Japanese test results showed they had the new virus that caused an outbreak in China, officials said Thursday. Five other people from the ship have shown symptoms of the virus and have also been taken to hospitals, said Scott Pauley, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman. (Johnson, 2/20)

The Wall Street Journal:
Evacuation Of Diamond Princess Set Off Race For U.S. Hospital Beds
Evacuees who boarded buses to the airport on Sunday had been screened by two U.S. doctors who flew to Japan last week, said one of the doctors, James Lawler, an infectious disease physician. The doctors evaluated passengers’ possible symptoms and ability to endure a 10-hour flight to the U.S. on chartered cargo jets, he said. The pair of physicians lacked time and equipment to seek coronavirus tests for all disembarking Americans, said Dr. Lawler, who works with Nebraska Medicine, a network of hospitals and clinics affiliated with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he is co-director of the Global Center for Health Security. “It wasn’t an option,” he said. They finished evaluations shortly before buses left for the airport, he said, leaving them to decontaminate their gear before jumping in a cab that defied one-way roads to deliver the doctors in time to fly. (Evans, 2/20)

The Wall Street Journal:
Japan Defends Handling Of Coronavirus-Struck Cruise Ship
Japanese officials defended their handling of cruise-ship virus victims after the first two passenger deaths were reported—one a woman in her 80s who had a fever for a week before getting to a hospital. South Korea, meanwhile, reported its first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus, while confirmed cases began to mount in Beijing and Iran announced emergency measures Thursday to stem the spread of the virus there after two people diagnosed with the illness died in the central city of Qom. (Inada and Mendell, 2/21)

The Hill:
Issues With CDC Coronavirus Test Pose Challenges For Expanded Screening
Expanded screening for the coronavirus has been postponed amid issues with a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the Trump administration had planned to expand screening to various state and local public health labs, only three of more than 100 such labs nationwide have verified th e CDC’s test for use, Politico reported. (Bukryk, 2/20)

Politico:
Problems With CDC Coronavirus Test Delay Expanded U.S. Screening
The delay has also hampered CDC’s plan to screen samples collected by its national flu-surveillance network for the coronavirus, according to Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL's senior director of public policy. CDC hopes to use public health labs in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle to screen samples that test negative for the flu and other common respiratory viruses for the coronavirus. CDC confirmed the problems with the coronavirus test, and with using its flu-surveillance network to screen for the virus. But the agency declined to answer further questions on the matter. (Lim, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
AP-NORC Poll: More Americans Worry About Flu Than New Virus
A wide share of Americans are at least moderately confident in U.S. health officials’ ability to handle emerging viruses, and more express concern about catching the flu than catching the new coronavirus, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The findings are encouraging to those banking on Americans' trust in the health officials who are ordering quarantines and travel restrictions to contain the virus first detected in China. (2/20)

The New York Times:
South Korea Confirms A Jump In Coronavirus Infections
South Korea said on Friday that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus infections rose to 156, a near tripling over three days. Among the 52 new cases reported on Friday, 41 are in Daegu, a city of about two and half million people in the southeastern part of the country, and the surrounding region, South Korean disease control officials said in a statement. Among those, 39 were connected to a church called Shincheonji. (2/20)

Los Angeles Times:
South Korea Ups Emergency Response As Viral Cases Surge
The spike forced officials to focus on steps to contain the domestic spread of the disease, not just its entry from abroad. Most of the new cases have been reported since Wednesday. The increase, especially in and around Daegu city in the southeast, has raised fears the outbreak is overwhelming the region’s medical system. Many of the cases have been linked to a church in the city. (2/21)

Los Angeles Times:
Ukrainians Hurl Stones At Coronavirus Evacuees From China
Ukraine’s effort to quarantine more than 70 people evacuated from China over the new coronavirus outbreak plunged into chaos Thursday as local residents opposing the move hurled stones at the evacuees and clashed with police. Officials denounced the violence and the country’s health minister pledged to join the evacuees’ quarantine for two weeks in a bid to reassure protesters who fear they’ll be infected. (2/20)

The Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Outbreak Tests World Bank’s Pandemic Insurance
It’s the third month of the coronavirus outbreak, and investors still don’t know whether the first-ever pandemic-insurance policy will pay out. The World Bank issued pandemic-catastrophe bonds in 2017, a novel test of the ability to insure against global epidemics. The issuance marked an effort to expand the use of catastrophe bonds—financial instruments that were designed to help investors bet against natural disasters like hurricanes—to a new category of global risks. (Friedman, 2/20)

Undark:
Coronavirus Spurs Prejudice. History Suggests That's No Surprise.
In the 14th century, Europe had descended into chaos. In a six-year span, a disease — marked by swollen lymph nodes in the armpit, groin, or neck — as much as halved Europe’s population. At the time, Jewish people were scapegoated for the pestilence: One incident in present-day France saw 1,000 Jews burned alive after the group was accused of poisoning wells. More than 500 years later, scientists had yet to crack the real story of how the seemingly indiscriminate disease, called bubonic plague, moved through society. By the time a resurgence made its way to San Francisco in 1900, writes journalist Marilyn Chase in “The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco,” the best theories science offered included transmission via dirt, food, and miasma — a now disproved idea that disease spread through tainted air. (Peryer, 2/13)

The Associated Press:
In Rough US Flu Season For Kids, Vaccine Working OK So Far
It may end up being a bad flu season for kids, but early signs suggest the vaccine is working OK. The vaccine has been more than 50% effective in preventing flu illness severe enough to send a child to the doctor's office, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Health experts consider that pretty good. The vaccines are made each year to protect against three or four different kinds of flu virus. The ingredients are based on predictions of what strains will make people sick the following winter. It doesn't always work out. (Stobbe, 2/20)

The Washington Post:
Here's The Medicare-For-All Study Bernie Sanders Keeps Bringing Up
A new analysis published in the journal Lancet adds some empirical heft to an argument many progressives have been making for years: A national single-payer health-care system would save tens of thousands of lives each year — and hundreds of billions of dollars. If you watched last night’s Democratic debate in Nevada you might have heard Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cite “a major study [that] came out from Yale epidemiologist[s] in Lancet, one of the leading medical publications in the world” in support of his Medicare-for-all plan. He was talking about this study, which was just published last week. (Ingraham, 2/20)

The New York Times:
Medicare’s Private Option Is Gaining Popularity, And Critics
When Ed Stein signed up for Medicare eight years ago, the insurance choice seemed like a no-brainer. Mr. Stein, a Denver retiree, could choose original, fee-for-service Medicare or its private managed-care alternative, Medicare Advantage. He was a healthy and active 65-year-old, and he picked Advantage for its extra benefits. “The price was the same, I liked the access to gyms, and the drug plan was very good,” he recalled. After a pause, he added: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be facing a crisis like the one I’m having now.” (Miller, 2/21)

The Wall Street Journal:
Indian Health Service Declines To Release Report On Sexual Abuse
The U.S. Indian Health Service says it can’t disclose a report that identifies the officials responsible for mishandling a government pediatrician who abused Native American boys for decades, citing a law meant to protect medical reviews. That stance has angered relatives of the pediatrician’s victims, tribal members and former agency employees who hoped the report would provide a public reckoning and greater accountability for those who didn’t do enough to protect Native American children. (Weaver and Rosch, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
EPA Will Regulate Two Toxic Chemicals In Drinking Water
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it plans to regulate two nonstick and stain-resistant compounds in the drinking water amid growing concerns the chemicals found in everything from pizza boxes to carpet pose a health hazard. The agency is targeting a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. It will regulate the compounds, PFOA and PFOS, which are among the oldest chemicals in this class and have been phased out in the United States. It also plans to research whether other PFAS chemicals will be added to the list. (Casey, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
New Visa Rules Set Off 'Panic Wave' In Immigrant Communities
After nearly a dozen years moving through the U.S. visa system, Sai Kyaw's brother and sister and their families were at the finish line: a final interview before they could leave Myanmar to join him in Massachusetts and work at his restaurant. Then a dramatic turn in U.S. immigration policy halted their plans. The interview was postponed, and it's not clear when, or whether, it will be rescheduled. (Marcello and Tareen, 2/20)

Stat:
Machine Learning Finds A Novel Antibiotic Able To Kill Superbugs
For decades, discovering novel antibiotics meant digging through the same patch of dirt. Biologists spent countless hours screening soil-dwelling microbes for properties known to kill harmful bacteria. But as superbugs resistant to existing antibiotics have spread widely, breakthroughs were becoming as rare as new places to dig. Now, artificial intelligence is giving scientists a reason to dramatically expand their search into databases of molecules that look nothing like existing antibiotics. (Ross, 2/20)

Stat:
Gilead Loses Another Challenge To U.S. Patents For HIV Prevention
For the second time this month, Gilead Sciences (GILD) has lost a bid to invalidate patents owned by the U.S. government for using the Truvada pill to prevent HIV, which has been at the center of controversy over its cost and the extent to which taxpayer dollars funded key research. The Patent Trial and Appeals Board ruled Gilead failed to demonstrate it was likely to win its argument for overturning two patents held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped fund academic work into HIV prevention that later formed the basis for the pill, also known as PrEP. (Silverman, 2/20)

Reuters:
Few U.S. Residential Drug Rehabs Give Anti-Addiction Medicine
Most people who check in to residential treatment facilities to recover from opioid use disorder won't be given medicines proven to help combat addiction, a U.S. study suggests. Doctors widely agree that the most effective treatment for opioid abuse includes anti-addiction medicines like naltrexone, buprenorphine or methadone. But only 15% of patients in residential drug treatment centers got these medicines in 2015, the study found. (Rapaport, 2/20)

USA Today:
They Were Young. They Thought They Had Time. Then They Nearly Died Of Liver Disease.
Although Rachel Martin would never deny she had a drinking problem, she figured years would pass before it would take a toll on her health. After all, she had not yet hit 40 and she had managed to eke out two years of complete sobriety about a decade ago. Even when she was drinking, she would hit the bottle hard for three weeks but then go cold turkey for a week. So when Martin started feeling off about a year and a half ago, she tried to ignore the symptoms. (Rudavsky, 2/20)

USA Today:
NYU Scientists, Others Call For Taxpayer- Funded UCSF Vaping Study Probe
One of the country's best-known tobacco researchers is under fire this week after one of his federally funded vaping studies was retracted and other academics are calling for federal review of some of his other influential anti-vaping research. The retracted study, by University of California, San Francisco medical school professor Stanton Glantz and published in Journal of the American Heart Association, said vaping doubled the risk of heart attacks. It was paid for primarily by the second of two $20 million grants awarded to Glantz and UCSF in 2018 from the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to research tobacco and e-cigarettes. (O'Donnell, 2/20)

CNN:
Abortion: Block On Mississippi Heartbeat Bill Is Upheld
"A ban at six weeks of pregnancy means many of our patients would lose their right to have an abortion before they even know they're pregnant," said Shannon Brewer, director of Jackson Women's Health Organization, the state's only abortion provider. "Most of our patients are past that point. Some have spent weeks saving money for the procedure and have driven hundreds of miles to reach us." Mississippi is one of seven states that passed an abortion ban in 2019, all aimed at providing a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized the procedure in 1973. (Kelly, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
Another Man Accuses Late U. Of Michigan Doctor Of Sex Abuse
The president of the University of Michigan apologized Thursday to "anyone who was harmed" by a school doctor who has been accused by several former students of molesting them during medical exams, including one man who said the university did not respond when he reported the abuse decades ago. One of those students, Gary Bailey, told The Associated Press that the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson dropped his pants and asked him to fondle his genitals in a medical exam during Bailey's senior year in 1968 or 1969. (2/20)

The New York Times:
Gynecologist Spared Prison In ’16 Sex-Crime Plea Faces New Inquiry
In an interview last fall, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, and his chief assistant defended their decision to strike a plea deal in 2016 that allowed a gynecologist accused of sexually abusing 19 patients to avoid going to prison. The chief assistant, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said the case against the doctor, Robert A. Hadden, was “not a slam-dunk.” Among other things, she said, some of the women were pregnant when they say the assaults occurred and so they could not see what was happening. (Ransom, 2/20)

The Associated Press:
Jury Clears Hospital In Controversial Medical Abuse Case
Boston Children’s Hospital wasn’t medically negligent in its treatment of a Connecticut teen who spent nearly a year in state custody after doctors suspected her parents of medical child abuse, a jury in Boston concluded Thursday. The verdict in the medical malpractice lawsuit brought by the family of Justina Pelletier capped a high profile dispute that drew national media attention and sparked a broader debate over parental rights. (2/20)

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